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How to Get GMail to Stop Nudging You

My mother isn’t enough. My dentist isn’t enough. My cat isn’t enough. I must have more people and things reminding me that I have tasks need to perform, appointments I need to attend, and kibble bowls I need to fill.

In Google’s case it’s the GMail nudge feature. In case you haven’t noticed it, GMail will take emails that you have yet to answer and put them at the top of your inbox with a note reminding you that you have yet to reply.

I have enough stress in my life without getting guilt-tripped by a Web service. If you feel the same here’s how to turn Nudges off.

Open Gmail Settings. (Look for the cog in the upper right corner.)

Scroll down the General settings tab until you get to the Nudges section. You’ll see two checkboxes: one to stop GMail from reminding you about mail you haven’t responded to, and one to stop GMail from reminding you about sent messages that you might need to follow up on.

Uncheck them and you’re done.

Two clicks has never done so much for my mental health. Too bad this doesn’t work on my cats.